Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I am delighted to introduce our 29th quarterly Adult Beginners' Forum Recital! So, pull up a chair and have a listen.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask the audience to please refrain from commentary in this recital room.

A separate room has been provided for the purposes of intermezzo discussion. Please take any and all comments to the General Discussion Room.

Thank you!

In addition to the zip files linked below, mahlzeit has added a feature to his program that creates an online streaming player. Just click on the link to hear all the recital pieces without having to download the zip files:

For the convenience of forum members, mahlzeit's program has normalized the files for consistent volume and standardized the ID3 tags in a collection of zip files. This makes it easier to create personal CDs and playlists.

Let me express my greatest thanks to some very special people: mr_super-hunky for coming up with the idea of our online recitals, which have proven to be more successful than any of us ever dreamed; LaValse for hosting the recitals for so long and then devoting hours of programming trouble-shooting making the transition to Frank's servers; Frank for agreeing to host the recital now that it's gotten so big; Copper for trouble-shooting help and the Order of the Red Dot; Sam S. for his terrific AB Forum Recital Index and also devoting hours to programming trouble-shooting; and last but not least, mahlzeit for writing the absolutely fantastic web-based recital program that we are using. THANK YOU MAHLZEIT!!!

Gazing up at the stars I can see millions upon millions of them sparkling in the night sky. But they are not all the same. Some seem dull and far away while others seem brighter and much closer. Still, there are a few special stars in the night sky that seem to twinkle and are much more vibrant than the rest. These are the newest stars in the night sky with lots of life left in them to cast a beautiful shimmering twilight upon the rest of the world.

Sometimes the twilight created by these stars is bright enough to help guide you and ensure that you are on the right path. At some point, when your journey is over, you too may be able to light up the path for someone else.

This is what happens to good people. This is why I named the most recent shimmering star in the sky Apple.

My first exposure to this melody was that as a child, my parents played one of Art Tatum's versions on their record player. My second exposure to this was recently listening to an old recording of Marian Anderson sing it. Her voice is magic.

I never got an error-free take. It's a fun piece to play.

For lunch was some spicy Lentil-Vegetable Soup, then for dinner, then for future leftovers.

Extremely rare sheet music kindly sent to me by a member of pianophilia.

Instrument used:

Yamaha P140

Recording method:

Piano line-out to computer sound card line-in. Audacity. No edits.

Technical feedback wanted:

No

Additional info:

Carl Czerny's music tends to range from delightful to exquisite. His Romance in E is both delightful and exquisite, having a gorgeous, nostalgic melody and wonderful harmonies.

He was Beethoven's star pupil, and you can certainly hear Beethoven in this Romance, as well as in Czerny's 11 Piano Sonatas and 6 Symphonies.

This lovely little piece is in simple ABA form; first melody in E major, second melody in B major, and back to the first melody. As is usual with Czerny, there are generous sprinkles of glitter here and there, especially in the coda on the last page.

This sure looks easy on paper, but it took a year to get it to sound marginal. I still don't like the chords and the dynamics are ragged. The only editing was to delete the empty spaces at the beginning and end.

For lunch I had a salami and cheese sandwich, chips and an apple. I wish I could find good Braeburns again. :-(

This is one of my favorite Chopin nocturne. Its been a while i wanted to learn it but due to some left hand issues (soreness) i couldnt tackle the piu mosso. The performance isnt perfect but its the best i can do given my skill level. I have to admit i'm still pretty proud of the final result.

Feedback is welcome. I'm aware some of the dynamics are in the wrong place and there is a few errors here and there. I didn't want to record 10 times to make it perfect (this is actually my first take, I did 3 more after but the first one was the best! lol).

Follow the link to the YOUTUBE VIDEO right up there if you want to see a close-up of my hands while playing it.

In 2010, when I was discovering Einaudi, I heard "Julia" in the "La Scala Concert" album and I decided to put it on the bottom of my (long) to-do list, just because I knew that, at the time, I wasn't able to play it, and I understood I needed to progress a bit more to play it properly. Since then I was waiting for "the" moment to give it a try, which happened in the last summer. Then, it was a kind of surprise because I haven't found it a difficult piece to play and learn... I felt I was well aligned with the variations and chords of "Julia" and I learned it in a couple of sessions.

Since then I use to play it regularly and I find out that my wife loves this piece, it's her favorite - she says she "feels at home" when she hears it -, and I think it's one of the few pieces she asks me to play whenever she sees me in front of a piano... Because of that, and although I feel my hands a little "stuck" because I haven't played piano in the last few weeks and having conscience that I'm not with the right mood to do my best interpretation, nevertheless, I decided to play (by memory) and do this record.

So, this is dedicated to her, with love, hoping to help her regain happiness after having lost a loved one recently. I know she will smile, for a moment, when we hear this recital. I hope you like it too.

These are two short pieces from Alfred's Adult AIO Course book 2, which I am finishing in these days. I hadn't recorded myself for a while and it proved really hard. By listening to myself I heard many things that needed correction, but in the end I chose one of the first takes of both songs. I guess that obsessing about what I needed to change made subsequent recordings even worse!

I'd like these songs to flow more, to have a steadier beat and some "swing", but well, that's about the best I can do right now, especially in front of the red dot! Thank you for taking the time to listen.

This is from Mendelssohn's third book in the series "Lieder ohne worte". It contains 6 pieces and is dedicated to Fraulein Rosa von Woringen, a daughter of Otto von Woringen who was president of the Prussian government and friend of Felix. It appeared in 1837. These pieces were already famous in his life.I had this piece ready and recorded already for the previous recital. I have another nice piece ready but I can use some feedback on the Mendelssohn.Again, I'm not using pedal at all. There are rests between the bass notes and if you use pedal you can't play these rests. Therefore it puzzles me that everyone is pedal, including masters like Barenboim and Friedman.Maybe I'm too picky but I'm not entirely satisfied with this piece. The melody seems to be repeated a bit too often (with small variations) and I have a hard time to keep it interesting. The syncopated stuff in the left hand adds a nervous feel that seems not to fit the melody. I determined the speed from the melody, but I can't keep the feel of the melody when the nervous left hand is added. Maybe the left hand is still too loud? Maybe I'm phrasing something wrong or need a more catchy interpretation of the melody? Or maybe I should drop to a slower speed that does not fit the melody itself but gives a more suited overall feel? For some reason, I did not feel like memorizing this (I'm still looking at the sheets even though in fact I'm playing most of this from memory anyway), this could be related. Suggestions are welcome!

This prelude is from the collection Six Little Preludes. These were believed to have been written by Bach during lessons to address specific technical problems that a student was having at the time. This piece turned out to be far more challenging that I thought it was when I first looked at the score. My teacher knew, though, and warned me. It makes one wonder which of several technical difficulties it was written to address. I learned a lot from it! It has three voices to balance, intricate fingering, 5/4 crosses, and funky 4/3 trills. I had fun with it.

On a personal note, as some of you know I had a major MS relapse in early October that caused temporary partial paralysis on my right side. I was unable to play again until mid November. This piece was instrumental in restoring my finger dexterity and strength in my right hand. They say Bach is the best teacher. For me, he gave me the piano back! Thank you Herr Bach!

From the Dennis Alexander "Especially In Jazzy Style, Book 1" Early Intermediate level

Instrument used:

Yamaha P112N

Recording method:

Digital Camera

Technical feedback wanted:

Yes

Additional info:

Another from the Alexander collection that I have greatly enjoyed learning. I know there is always room for improvement, but this has been a great step forward in learning how to manage a long cascade of notes, and some jazzy triplets. Lots of fun, and hope you enjoy it. I believe I had homemade chicken vegetable soup for lunch, with goat cheese on toasted dark brown bread.

My teacher says I've never really got the feel of this piece though she notes my ideas about it are consistent and, arguably correct. We disagree on it. I'll be very interested in opinions.

I did several decent recordings; this is far and away the quickest of them. Again that's something I disagree with my teacher on but I feel this piece works better at pace.

Yes, the trills (particularly the left hand one) are ugly. I had them better and completely let them slip. It's a real problem of mine. Other than that, there's one minor hesitation that I don't like. But all in all I'm happy with how it's turned out.

Lunch yesterday, when I recorded it, was a ham sandwich. Today it will be a ham sandwich.

This is a very fun piece for me to play as our youngest son loves to sing along whenever I play it. I came across the piece for the first time during the holidays and it was love at first listening so to speak. But I was quite disappointed when I learned that the sheet music was not available anywhere. In fact, the song has never even been released on CD (heard it on TV)... I quickly turned to YouTube and same thing again, I could not find anything. The song is only about a year old but still. As a result, I decided to try to transcribe it on my own. I had a blast doing it (and entering it into MuseScore) and I learned a lot at the same time.

Lyrics:Christmas is a time of joy and peaceThe time for spending with the familyIt teaches us to shareShow others that we careChristmas is a time for forgivenessThat is why we all believe in ChristmasIt is a time of love joy and peaceIt is a time of face to believeMore than presents under a tree topped with a star.Christmas is a time for forgivenessThat is why we all believe in ChristmasChristmas is a time for forgiveness'Cause we carry Christmas in our hearts

Not my best original work but overall I like the tune. When I recorded I was just about totally deaf in my left ear and only later heard a little "tap" when I played the low C. It took a while to figure but it ended up being my pedaling. If I could change anything else I would try harder to keep the tempo slower at the end. By the end I'm almost always a good deal faster than where I started. The piece is called After All and I echo those words in the left hand throughout the piece. The poem that goes with it is as follows;

We are just a speck within a trillion thousand lightson our tiny little ball.How fleeting, how insignificantand how remarkableafter all.

Acknowledgement and special thanks to Michael O. of Beach Digital Media.

Technical feedback wanted:

Yes

Additional info:

In 1827, no doubt influenced by the passing of Ludwig van Beethoven and his impressive musical legacy, Schubert channeled a bit of the late composer and created a string of pieces. This work included the first 12 songs of the "Winterreise," as well as the "Piano Sonata in C Minor" and two piano solos, "Impromptus" and "Moments Musicaux."

I came upon this classical work in the Classical Sonata Analysis thread. It took me some time to warm up to it. The more I listened though, the more it grew on me and more so again as I began to learn it. Now I really like it and enjoy playing it. The harmonies of the open chords are very nice.

As a result of this recording, there are a few weaknesses I am more aware of now that I will work on fixing, but not re-recording for.

This piece is often described as impressionistic and sophisticated. It is a far cry, I'd say about as far as a cry can be, from the "jungle music" of Ellington's earlier years.

Interestingly, this piece is cited in Wikipedia as an example of Scriabin's Mystic Chord, AKA the Prometheus Chord, AKA the Dominant 13 #11 Chord.

My original intent was to play note for note from a published transcription of Ellington's recording. It didn't look that hard (famous last words), but when I started to play, I quickly found that some fancy parts were beyond my ability to execute at tempo. (@#$%%^*^&). I settled for creating my own arrangement, plagiarizing freely from the transcription, but unable to restrain myself from altering the melody, harmony, and rhythms. (What else is there? Oh yeah, the mood. So OK, I altered that, too.) Just to prove a point, I suppose, I added some amateurish fancy stuff that was within my ability to play at tempo. So there, take that, Duke! Ya think yer so special!

Although none of the passages in this piece present much technical difficulty, there's enough variety and the piece is long enough that it was surprisingly hard to get a clean take. I had a lot of fun playing the part at the end that repeats the melody while getting quieter and quieter.

I think every pianist probably plays Fur Elise at some point. For me it captures essence of piano,even if it is a little bit of a cliche. I have fond memories of my Dad playing this when I was growing up.

I see this recital as a little personal milestone, as I can now measure my playing in years rather than months (woohoo, first birthday!), which in my mind means that I have moved from beginner into intermediate(ish) territory.

I had slow cooked beef with crushed potatoes for lunch - doesn't anywhere do mash anymore?

I would like to present 2 original compositions for this recital. I wrote the opening bars of "Another song" some time ago but I was never satisfied with the rest of the tune and have more or less re-written the whole thing for this recital. The title is the original one , as I remember I just couldn't think of anything better ! The tune "Maya" was written just over a year ago, it was to celebrate the birth of my first grand child Maya. At the time I posted a version to the Piano Bar but this is a more polished and refined version having had a bit of time to mature.I must say I thought I had got over the devil of the red dot until I switched the video camera on to record Another Song and my fingers turned to jelly. So not as good as I have been playing it recently but the first take is always best for me so this is it. I recorded Maya a few weeks ago without video.

Recorded on the Casio using the built in function. I played back that recording into a Sony voice recorder to get a portable MP3 file. I used Audacity to boost the output volume using the compressor.

Technical feedback wanted:

Yes

Additional info:

Serendipity has me recording and uploading on Ground Hog day. This is my first week with the Casio PX-150, a significant upgrade from a 61-key Yamaha NP11.

Shadow is a companion piece to Shimmer, my November 2012 recital piece. I found that relatively minor changes such as moving down a few notes and slowing down gives me a different mood. Shimmer is a happy, upbeat tune, while Shadow is pensive and brooding in places. The two pieces together bring me closer to a goal derived from a John Coltrane quote:

Very nice piano piece from patrick hawes.Subsequently chosen by Hayley Westenra for her 2005 album Odyssey.I like this piece for its simplicity and textures and as it builds up and down in exspression,youve got to listen to all the piece to fully enjoy.

I couldn't decide how to play this.It sounds dreamy played slowly with plenty of pedal, but I also like it faster with less pedal.In the end I've recorded both versions and welded them together so you can decide for yourself which you prefer.I hope this isn't against the rules.

Thanks to anyone who listens and especially people that take time to comment.These recitals have really helped my playing a lot.